‘Iron Man 3’ Rumor: ‘Iron Patriot’ Armor is Actually War Machine

Seeing is believing – but the problem with set photos is you sometimes don’t quite know what you’re seeing. This is certainly the case with comic book movies, where any photo of costumes, make-up, or even generic-looking motion capture suits can spark all kinds of specious guesswork and deduction. Hey, we’re totally guilty of it: after all, pitching your own guesses and/or wishes is half the fun of comic book films, right?

News has been coming fast about production on Marvel’s Iron Man 3, and one of the biggest pot-stirrers were set photos that revealed (what appeared to be) the Iron Patriot or Detroit Steel armor, presumably worn by actor James Badge Dale, who will star as a villain (one of several). However, new rumors indicate that the old rumors were not quite accurate. Scroll down for details.

Latino Review has been dropping Marvel movie exclusives like rain, and this latest one claims that the Iron Patriot speculation was wrong: the armor in the set photos is allegedly War Machine (the armor worn by Rhodey (Don Cheadle) in Iron Man 2). War Machine has apparently gotten a new paint job, courtesy of Uncle Sam; the caucasain man who was pictured inside the armor is reportedly just a stunt double for Cheadle. Ah, the magic of the movies…

Rumor has it, the scene in question involves the Vice President taking a flight to China, and War Machine presumably acting as his guard. Iron Man 3 will partially be set in China – not to mention rumors that Ben Kingsley’s villain character will be based on The Mandarin, a comic book villain also based in China.

As LR points out, we are now in a post-superhero world of Marvel Movies, and the game has thusly changed. It’ll be interesting to see how the filmmakers of Captain America 2 and Thor 2 also tackle this new narrative thread.

This new explanation makes a lot of sense for several reasons: One, the armor design looks like War Machine with the bulky guns and launchers. Moreover, a new suit of armor did seem out of place, since Iron Man 3‘s plot involves a nanotech virus that transforms people into cyborgs. In the “Extremis” comic book story the film is based on, the whole idea is that something more efficient and dangerous than the Iron Man armor comes into play: So new armored characters/villains would be a bit counterproductive.

As production on the “Phase 2 Marvel Films” continues, there are sure to be plenty of other rumors, false-guesses and misconstrued details to go along with the great discussion and speculation. We’ll try to help keep the fact separated from the fiction.